Laudanum
by unwritten92
Summary: It was no wonder why they called it the murder manor.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: (Using the house that Kanryu Takeda owns in the live action movie), and I so totally used both American Horror Story kinda plot and its soundtrack. Some chapters will be long, like this one, and some will be short (drabble length). I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, although like many others I wish I did.

This fic is totally experimental, I hope you enjoy reading it as I have enjoyed planning it and writing it.

* * *

The house had an eerie feel to it, but it was gorgeous. She could not believe at what price Misao had found it, yet she was infinitely glad she had. Still, she hated moving. It was such a hassle, all the mess and the lost items and then the ones you had thought you lost but you found out you had just "misplaced" them.

Misao, as always, had been a great asset for everything Kaoru needed to do. Especially willing after she had heard what had happened that made her want to move out of her city apartment and go live in the middle of nowhere as Misao had eloquently put it.

The house had been built in the late 1840's, as the real estate agent had informed them, and had survived the wars without a scratch. Yet it was in prime condition because the previous owners had been compulsive about keeping it in tip top shape, and not because time had kept it that way.

Both she and Misao had been curious at the price, and the agent had regaled the horrifying news of the deaths that had occurred in the house. The last people who had lived in the house, a young married couple had died tragically, murder-suicide. The man had gone insane while in the house and had shot his wife to death, later on committing suicide by throwing himself into the fireplace and burning himself to death.

Misao had been speechless for probably the first time in her life, and Kaoru could only nod with her heart in her throat.

Yet, no matter what had happened before in the house, the only danger for her was her own cooking. Kaoru knew a good deal when it slapped her on the face, and she could protect herself from the crazies. That was a danger that was present everywhere, and especially for a woman living alone.

With only a slight shudder of apprehension but full of resolve she accepted the contract for the house. She was about to become an independent woman once more, and she couldn't wait to fully regain the confidence she'd lost.

The agent had taken them both on a tour around the grand manor, explaining fixtures and the architecture. She explained the story behind each added object, and regaled little stories of the family that had constructed the house. Nothing personal, just stories that where almost legend in the small town she was now going to live in.

She explained how the couple before her had remodeled the kitchen (not that she cared; she was staying as far away from the kitchen as she could). Kaoru didn't mind the small fixes she would have to do; like how the stair was rickety on the top two steps or the wallpaper covering the hall walls that the couple before had installed was peeling in some corners, how the first floor's bathroom sink faucet was dripping or the dilapidated dojo that took up most of the far off land property. She needed the work she would have to put into the house, something to keep her mind from over thinking.

By the time both the real estate agent and Misao had left, Kaoru already had an almost complete inventory of everything she needed to do to make the house hers.

Carrying a few boxes around the hall and into the kitchen she started at the figure bent over the oven. Her heart racing she dropped the box (nothing fragile in there) and grabbed the closest thing to her to use as a weapon (unfortunately it happened to be a duster, she could work it).

"Who are you?" Her voice was deceptively calm, inside she was shrieking. The red headed slender figure stood up suddenly banging his head against the counter, and muttering something she couldn't understand turned to face her. It was a man, a very delicate and pretty looking one at that. But no matter how pretty he was, he was still an intruder in a supposedly vacant house, which now belonged to her.

He eyed the duster warily. For some reason Kaoru found that humorous.

"Ah! You must be Miss Kaoru! Forgive this one, he was only trying to fix the oven, but it is being particularly difficult this time, that it is." He told her cheerily.

"That still does not answer my question, and you're trespassing into private property, if you don't have a valid reason as to why you are in my home which I doubt you do, I will beat you to an inch of your life and then hand you over to the police."

By the end of her tirade her eyebrow was twitching and the man laughed scratching the top of his head in a nervous gesture.

"Forgive me Miss Kaoru, I am so accustomed to just being part of the house that it slips my mind that the new owners of the house have no clue as to who I am.

I am Kenshin, the caretaker of the manor; my family has been working for the families that have owned this house for as long as I can remember. There is a contract signed by myself and the real estate agency, if you'd like to know more. I guess you could say I come as part of the furniture."

"And how the hell do you know my name?" Kaoru asked him, slightly calmer than before knowing he wasn't a thief or worse, a rapist.

"Ah, yes. I overheard you and your friend talking with the agent. Forgive me for intruding in your privacy; I was just curious as to who had bought the house this time, despite knowing what happened here."

Kenshin smiled at her gently and explained why he had been so silent.

"I did not introduce myself earlier because I was not sure if the house would be bought this time. I was the one who found the last couple after the incident, and I believed after it was known to the new potential buyers they would decide to not pick the house, opting for something less macabre."

He looked slightly uncomfortable as he explained his experience, and Kaoru felt equally as uncomfortable hearing him talk about it. It made her feel sympathetic for this man, who must have come in one day not expecting to find two dead bodies to clean up after.

Both stood facing each other, but Kaoru tried to look everywhere but at him. He seemed to sense the awkwardness and changed the subject, which prompted her to finally look at him, and in the process study his admittedly beautiful and delicate features.

"Anyways, as you can see I have been trying to fix the oven but I am not making much headway. I can help you get settled in, unpack and give you a complete tour to let you know where everything is if you have need of it?"

He turned around as he offered, closing the oven door and in the process giving Kaoru a glimpse of the cross shaped scar on his left cheek. She winced, wondering how one could get such a particular looking mark as an accident. Shaking herself from her wandering thought process, she settled the duster on the kitchen table and cleared her throat.

"Yes, please. I'd like that, and since you work here I guess I should ask you how much it is the previous owners paid you for your work?"

Kenshin smiled and shook his head "Nothing, just room and board. I don't require more than that."

Kaoru sighed in relief and nodded, then gestured to the door.

"I have more boxes in the foyer, and some are pretty heavy." She eyed his frame. "Think you can handle it?"

Kenshin seemed to smirk, but it was gone in an instant so she wasn't sure and played it off as a trick of the lighting, and nodded a goofy grin suddenly crossing his mouth as he replied.

"I can try!"

Kaoru looked almost incredulous as he walked past her and out of the kitchen. Huffing in amusement at his now apparent goofy and happy-go-lucky nature, she smiled and picked up the box she had dropped earlier settling alongside the duster on the counter. She headed to the door, but decided to grab something to drink before she left to help her new caretaker. Turning she stopped dead on her tracks when she saw the duster that she had left on the counter was no longer in its place, but on the other side of the kitchen near the sink.

She forgot the water, and rapidly scurried out of the kitchen at the same time chastising her running away, mentally reassuring herself she was just tired, and that Kenshin had probably moved it when she had to been paying attention before leaving to carry the boxes she had asked him to help with.

Later on, as the sun set and a chill fell over the house hidden by the trees and Kenshin had helped her settle in, Kaoru stood behind the glass wall that faced the huge backyard. Music played from the player in the living room. It was music reminiscing of the oldies, music she could picture the people who had built this house used to dance to at the grand parties they must have held, if the grand ballroom in the back of the manor was any indication.

Dusk played with the colors of the landscape and made the place seem straight out of a fairy tale, and Kaoru sighed finally content with her choice.

She trailed her fingers on the walls as she descended the stairs to the first floor, she had no idea where Kenshin had disappeared to, but she hoped it was nowhere near the kitchen because she was about to venture into the forbidden. Cooking. Her stomach growled at the thought of food, and she chuckled mentally imagining Kenshin's face if only he knew of her talents, or lack of.

Bare feet tiptoed on the beautiful hardwood floors, and absently she thought that for such a pipsqueak Kenshin was actually very reliable, the place might need a few touch ups but Kenshin was already getting right to them. The bathroom's faucet was no longer leaking and the stair was no longer rickety. She wondered when he had been able to fix all that and if he had been able to fix the oven as well.

In the kitchen she started to rummage on the fridge and decided on just microwaving some ramen.

_'Ah, instant food!'_

When she finished entering the minutes for the soup, she walked to the windows above the steel sink and looked out towards the dilapidated dojo.

A clatter startled her and she turned to greet her missing caretaker only to shriek in shock when she came face to face with a woman who was definitely not her caretaker.

Absent mindedly she thought that today she had been pretty shrieky, with Kenshin she had managed to hold it in, but this woman had actually appeared from nowhere.

The elegant woman raised a well formed brow and pursed red lips as she took her in arrogantly with almond shaped brown eyes.

Kaoru sputtered "Just how many people are going to enter my house without announcing themselves first?"

The woman, who Kaoru swore gained fox ears for a moment, laughed huskily and to Kaoru it sounded almost mocking. The woman backed away from where Kaoru had flattened herself against because of the scare and sat down on the chairs by the marble top island.

"I am Megumi; you must be the new owner of the house. Sir Ken seemed to forget about mentioning you."

Kaoru, incredulous, watched as the woman checked her blood red nails and then how she placed them on the table top. The woman, Megumi, looked calculating and Kaoru could feel her temper rising.

"Yes, I am the new owner of the house, and Kenshin seemed to forget mentioning you as well. Just what are you doing inside my house?"

Megumi smiled cattily "I am a doctor, and like Sir Ken, my family and I have served this house for as long as we can remember." She drawled. "In any case, I just came to visit and see what poor fool had decided to buy this god forsaken manor."

The poorly concealed dislike had Kaoru clenching her fists, she liked her house dammit, and it was hers.

"Well, I believe you've already met me and now you should be on your way, it is past normal visiting hours anyway."

Megumi only smiled, and turned expectantly as the kitchen door gently swung open. Kenshin stood there his hands full of vegetables from the garden outside. The smile he wore on his face dimmed somewhat with the appearance of Megumi.

"Miss Megumi, what a surprise, I did not think you would be stopping by today."

Her almost dangerous smile turned flirtatious as she took in the redhead making something inside Kaoru clench in dislike.

"Sir Ken, what a delight to see you again! Maybe we should go into another room to talk. Strangers make me nervous."

Kaoru clenched her teeth at the obvious dismissal in her own home. But Kenshin only smiled brightly and shook his head.

"I'm sorry Miss Megumi; I promised Miss Kaoru that I would help her get settled in. It seems that one of those duties is helping her around the kitchen." He then gestured to the smoking microwave. "It seems she will need quite a lot of help with that, so my time is quite limited."

Kaoru turned to the microwave just as the Styrofoam cup inside exploded. _'Can that even happen?' _Promptly turning red in both embarrassment and anger at hearing Megumi's annoying laughter.

"Oh well, it seems she can use all the help she can get. Goodnight then." She left just as silently as she had appeared.

Kenshin looked sheepish as Kaoru huffed and reached inside the microwave to throw out the now inedible food.

"Forgive Miss Megumi, she's just…"

Kaoru growled at the mess and muttered under her breath a pretty offensive word.

"…yes, something like that." Kenshin finished an amused lilt to his smooth tenor.

"Does she do that a lot?" Kaoru asked him.

"Sneak in, and scare people out of their wits? Yes, all the time." He replied smiling and putting down his load on the sink, and then looked at her from beneath his bangs.

"Great. But I meant, you know, come on to you? Does she do that all the time? She seems intense." She seemed almost embarrassed to ask but equally amused, and Kenshin seemed to take pity on her when he just chuckled and nodded.

"It is almost a game to her now, but believe me when I say Miss Kaoru, I've never been interested. You do not see what I see."

His comment confused her and made her pause in the cleaning of the mess she had made. Looking at him from the corner of her eyes she watched as he washed the vegetables and cut them meticulously.

He seemed to sense her scrutiny and glanced her way making her start, and he smiled.

"I can cook too. I haven't had to do it before, but it seems my talents will come in handy this time around." He said in that gently amused tone of his, and blushing at being caught staring she nodded her assent, and gave off cooking duties to her mysterious yet adorable (yes, adorable, she could admit it now) caretaker.

She had a feeling about the house.

* * *

When I say kinda plot, is just some lines that I want to go with, but it has nothing to do with it. By the way, I'll probably update this sporadically but the outline is complete. The most important parts of the story have been written and the ending is already thought out. I will most definitely complete this story. Soon.

P.s. Please let me know if you find any errors, so I can fix them as fast as I can.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: By the way, in the last chapter it totally invented the word "shrieky".

* * *

The loud noise from her cellphone gave new meaning to the phrase "rude awakening". Kaoru shot awake from the bed and stumbled down on the hardwood floors of her bedroom. Cursing Misao to hell and back, she grabbed the cellphone and answered with an unintelligible mix between a sigh, a growl and a hello.

"Hey!"

Lying sprawled on the ground Kaoru glared at nothing in particular as she grunted her response to Misao's cheery greeting. How the woman could be so happy in the morning she would never venture to know.

"So? How's the house? Did you manage to unpack everything or do you need any help?"

Kaoru sighed and rubbed her forehead while standing up from the floor.

"Nah, I'm fine. Kenshin helped me with everything and what I haven't unpacked yet I'll leave it for late. I want to check out the dojo in the backyard."

"Who's Kenshin? Ooh, don't tell me, a really cute neighbor who decided to be a dashing knight and came to rescue you from the evils of unpacking?"

Kaoru laughed at Misao's theatrics and rolled her eyes.

"No, he's the manor's caretaker. Apparently he comes with the house or so he says."

"Hmm, lucky you. He wouldn't happen to be a cook now would he, and cute to boot? I mean, it sounds as if you just accepted him."

Kaoru sheepishly laughed at her friend's right on description.

"Anyways, I'm fine. I'll call you later to let you know how everything goes, kay."

She could hear Misao cluck her tongue, but quickly hung up before she decided to actually get serious and start interrogating to find out details.

The house was quiet and she wondered about Kenshin's schedule.

She decided to forego breakfast, and headed outside to the backyard slapping her knee against the screen porch door. She cursed like a sailor and blamed Misao for her misfortune with every piece of furniture available in the house.

The backyard was completely manicured and Kenshin's vegetable garden took up a sizable piece of the yard. She felt slight irritation at the state of the dojo.

Why was the practice hall in such a condition, if the whole house was in prime condition?

It looked rundown, no doors and the once beautiful glass windows cracked and full of cobwebs and dust. The wooden walls were completely destroyed, and falling off in some places. She wondered why had been left to look that way.

Cautiously she entered the obviously not safe structure, dodging what she was sure was a rat and walked further inside noticing stains on the floor. Some of the stains looked as if whatever made them had been dragged and then completely disappeared, like it had run out of whatever it had been dripping. The stains were quite a few, and dark like oil.

Shrugging them off, she walked to the far off wall. The windows faced the woods behind her home. Because of this, most of the dojo was shrouded in shadows but she could tell it had been beautiful when it had been in use.

Other types of stains caught her eye by the windows; because the wood of the walls was lighter the stains weren't dark, at least not completely. These stains, although not as big as the ones on the floor, were still abundant and the wood seemed to have absorbed them just to display them.

They were red, dried up red. They brought a chill when she saw what they were.

She stumbled back slightly and looked back to the bigger ones on the floor. Dread settled on the pit of her stomach. What the hell had happened in that place? Simple practice wounds couldn't be the answer. Those wouldn't cause massacre like reminders on the floor, it looked as if quite a few people had been hurt in there, and looking at the dragging marks, they had also been dragged out of the place.

The agent had not mentioned any kind of accident, apart from the dead couple, and that had happened inside the house. Something like this had not been discussed.

Did they know? Did Kenshin? Why hadn't they said anything? And what the hell should she do?

Shaken and disturbed, Kaoru walked out of the apparent murder scene heading for the back porch of the manor to sit on the steps. Her thoughts churning and tangling up with each other, she failed to notice when the screen door behind her opened and then shut by itself.

She did notice, however, the appearance of her red headed caretaker right before her, complete with gardening tools in hand.

"Are you alright Miss Kaoru?" His voice held the hint of something, to Kaoru almost like a threat, but not quite. When she looked up at his face he sported a concerned looking smile on his face. But it somehow didn't reach his eyes.

She was afraid to ask him about the dojo, about what could have happened there. In that moment, with his strangely expressionless eyes on her, she felt more afraid of him than the stains on the dojo floor.

Shaking herself of such thoughts, she ventured to ask him about the practice hall.

"Apart from the couple, has anything else happened here, perhaps inside the dojo? There were really big stains on the floor that looked like dried up blood."

Kenshin quirked an eyebrow and his face took up a confused look.

"In the dojo? I don't believe I've ever seen stains on the dojo's floor. Regardless, it's been decades since anyone has used it."

His answer was truthful, yet Kaoru doubted about there not being any stains.

"I was just there; I saw the stains on the floor."

Kenshin looked honestly bewildered, but he rapidly wore a goofy smile and seemed to find the subject unimportant because he shrugged it off and changed the subject. Almost as if avoiding her questions.

"Tonight I want to cook up something special, at what hour would you like dinner to be ready Miss Kaoru?"

Kaoru looked at him incredulous at how easy it had been for him to change subjects, ignoring her concerns easily, as if irrelevant or as if she had never spoken of a possible murder in her backyard.

She left disconcerted and without answering his question. Kenshin's face blanked as he threw a glance at the shadows of the dojo, in the darkest corner near the back windows something moved backwards and further inside the dojo.

* * *

Please, do not get used to me updating this story so quickly. I don't like disappointing. Also, remember any misspelling and let me know.

P.s. I think I should add that there _is_ going to be romance.

P.s.s. Poll: What do you think is a really scary way to die? You can describe too.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you very much for the advice, and for spotting my mistakes! :)

* * *

That night Kaoru couldn't sleep, dinner had been uncomfortable and she was certain that the house's other resident could feel her consternation.

Kenshin had looked sincere in his confusion, and Kaoru had felt guilty for making him equally uncomfortable as she had been. After the awkward affair that had been their dinner she had gone straight to bed, all she wanted was to sleep off the bad taste of what she had seen inside that dojo and try to put it behind her. Unfortunately her mind had refused to allow her any sleep as a form of freedom.

_Thud._

She started, whipping her head to face the door on her left. Had she really heard that?

_Silence._

Great, now she was hearing things. First she saw things move, then things that weren't there and now she was hearing things. Obviously she was sleep deprived and a little more than freaked out.

Abandoning her warm bed she ventured to the cold kitchen, weary of anything that moved on her way down.

She basically plastered herself to the wall at the sound. It had come from the stairs, as if someone was dragging something up them.

_Thud._

But, she was standing on the stairs, and there was nothing there. She crouched and peered down from the stair's banister to the first floor, nothing.

_Thud._

She crawled a few steps back, Kenshin's room was on the first floor maybe he was doing something that echoed in the large house?

_Thud. Scratch._

Well, shit. That did not come from Kenshin's room or anywhere else except almost beside her. Abandoning her desire for a glass of water she turned and climbed up the stairs to her room. Once in the hallway she raced to her door and slammed it shut behind her.

Inside her room Kaoru headed for the bathroom grabbing her wooden sword. Once inside her bathroom she huddled inside the bathtub. The sounds she had left behind where now coming from inside her room. She held in a sob and she couldn't draw in breath; she felt as if she was suffocating.

The noise stopped.

When Kaoru opened her eyes the sun was shining and the light was in her eyes. She was lying on her bed with the sheets tangled around her legs and her pillows on the floor. Her hands where clutching the olive bed covers and her fingers hurt from the tension.

She was out of breath from the suffocation she had felt in her dream, but she was filled with relief. The nightmare had probably been induced from the scare she had received the day before in the dojo.

Letting out a sigh she dropped her head back against her mattress.

Later in the afternoon after almost burning down the kitchen, she hadn't seen Kenshin since breakfast as he had gone to take care of the vegetable garden outside; Megumi arrived with tea in mind, and an irritating grin (permanently) stuck on her face.

Although Kaoru did not trust the secretive woman she was curious to know if Megumi knew something about the dojo stains that Kenshin did not, or was hiding from her.

Turns out the doctor did know about a murder that had happened in the area, and had ended with the bodies lying strewn on the practice hall floors. Not only a murder, but a massacre that had Kaoru wishing she hadn't asked.

Megumi explained to Kaoru that Kenshin probably was clueless about the dojo after all (he was the dense kind), but at the same time weary and not wanting to cause her stress or to give her any reason to leave the house.

Megumi explained to Kaoru the only reason Kenshin worked for was the owners of the manor, and without Kaoru there was no one to work for.

From then on Megumi proceeded to tell her all about the manor, and everything that the agent had apparently forgotten to tell her. Megumi obviously wanted Kaoru to be terrified.

The dojo massacre was not the only horrifying thing to happen near the manor. Other murders and death had taken place on the property or near it, and by the end of Megumi's 'gossip' it had turned into a horror story that had Kaoru with a nauseous feeling on the pit of her stomach.

"But not to worry, I mean you look like a strong girl, and I doubt murder stories are enough to run you out of your new home. It doesn't mean they will happen to you. Although, I would be careful if I were you, you never know if it could."

And just like that she left in a hurry, saying she was late for a meeting with one of her patients.

Kaoru was honestly freaked out, but apparently all the people that had died had either died by natural causes unrelated to one another or product of a mass murderer running free on the streets. All murders had been part of well-known murderers. They had also occurred decades ago, she hadn't even been born. That was one of the reasons why she wasn't running screaming for the doors, that and she was loath to leave Kenshin without a job and herself without a home, again.

But it didn't mean she wasn't going to have a talk with the real estate agency.

That night, after dinner with the reappeared Kenshin, she had her second nightmare.

It was unlike her last one, this time she wasn't being chased. It was a party, inside the practice hall, where people were dressed glamorously and music played loudly from the speakers on the corners.

The edges of her vision were fuzzy, and everything had a weird sepia tone to it. It looked more like an old picture than a dream. It looked to be the 1960's, but Kaoru wasn't really sure. The dojo was impressive, none of the decay she had seen and more like a grand hall than a place to practice the sword arts.

Kaoru was a part of the party, dress in a sapphire gown whose skirt went straight down her legs in lace and impeded wide movements.

Everything looked to be going well, but Kaoru felt dread creeping in the back of her mind. People were laughing and drinking and conversation flowed happily.

The music was sensual, and slowly Kaoru became aware of the shadows that seemed to be growing behind her, where most of the guests were standing chatting. Suddenly everything seemed to freeze, and all she could do was watch as the people and the music stopped.

Even as they were frozen, the wine and champagne in their glasses swirled with their abrupt stop of movement, all of them wore confused stares. Kaoru felt uncomfortable, and she felt a sudden and sharp pain in her sternum that disappeared as quickly as it had come.

She looked down and noticed that the stem of the wine glass she was holding had been cleanly cut through.

Then as she looked incredulously around her, bodies started to drop.

Heads falling off the bodies, torsos sliding off, legs crumpling, wine bottles breaking and blood pooling on the floor.

It was horrifying, but it became worse when Kaoru felt her own upper half sliding off. Some of the bodies crawled, as if trying to get away, and left blood pools that dragged behind them.

Dimly, she thought back to the stains in the dojo floor. Her mouth opened, and she woke up screaming.

The house was eerily silent, still Kaoru stumbled out of her bed and down the stairs for a cup of water. Her heart was pounding with the adrenaline the fear had invoked.

For some reason the oven was on, and it smelled of burnt flesh. In morbid curiousity she walked towards it, the feeling that something was still wrong present in her thoughts, when she heard the clatter of utensils behind her.

Whirling around, expecting to find Kenshin up to something, she came face to face with an angry looking older man.

In his right hand he clutched a gun, in his left a box of matches. His steps thundered on the wooden floor, but he passed right through Kaoru as if she were made of smoke.

It felt odd, but she paid it no mind and followed the furious man into the hall.

A dark silhouette was standing on the last steps of the stairs where a woman with long dark hair that covered her face was sobbing. The figure was faceless and distorted, but he was ignored by the other two as if he could not be seen.

The man raised the gun, (Kaoru moved to stop him, but once again passed right through him, and for some reason she couldn't make any sound) and pulled the trigger.

The woman's head reared back violently then her figure disappeared, and all that was left before Kaoru was the man lighting up the fireplace inside the family room. She could only watch helplessly as the man threw himself inside, agony twisting his features before he vanished just like the woman had seconds before.

But the silhouette had not disappeared, as it turned to leave the family room Kaoru followed it down the hall to the basement door. It opened when the dark figure touched the knob, and closed abruptly after he had passed through slamming on her face.

Kaoru woke with a start, and with the strange feeling she knew the figure in black and with the certainty she had seen the murders that had happened inside the dojo, and the death of the couple that had lived in the manor before her.

* * *

_(I need a beta reader for my RK fanfics... I've never had one before, and it is because I have a hectic schedule and I try to edit them myself but I find that I am in need of one. So if anyone can point me in the right direction I would so appreciate it. Or if there are any volunteers, better yet.)*_

Remember the drill, any mistakes tell me about them.

Poll: Worst nightmare you've ever had?

P.s. Please forgive my late update, spring break hasn't even started and I already have a few projects I have to work on. Warning, updates will be sporadic.


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